Condensation
Maintaining 90% RH is a challenge and it is impossible to prevent
condensation. I would suggest we study the psychrometric charts closely. To
begin the room RH has to be below 50%. And temp control within 1deg F. And
completely insulated from an air swish. I hv forgotten the d/dx 30 yrs ago.
But practically testing at high Rh is cool if yr ambient is 40%. Above that
yr are likely to get condensation.
Well the matter we see in the photos comes from somewhere - condensation and
Voltage have accelerated it.- and not from the PCB - cause any pcb made in a
normal shop will pass SIR post etch and stay that way.
It's the flux. And for such a low profile component u need a good washing
machine. Maybe ultrasonic - or lots of hot water and sonics and air
agitation.
Its finally d/dx. The cleaner you need the longer and harder u need to
clean.
Best wishes
Anil
-----Original Message-----
From: Inge [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 22:32
Subject: Re: humidity test failure
We had an awful lot of environmental test chambers, and we followed MIL-STD
like a blind klinging to his stick. With time, we have realized the
questionable relationship between those tests and the unpredictable mother
Nature. The exact repetition of temperature up, temp down, dwell, temp down
etc does not always correspond to the erratic reality with endless
variations and combinations of condensation and vibration, heat and salt,
power switching and deep freeze, sun irradiation and sand blast , very short
exposure followed by extremly long one etc etc. I listened to a guy who was
a successful design manager, whose motto was 'skip all testing, do the right
design or process from the beginning' . Easy said, but still interesting
topic. Am brought up with MIL-STD, so I'm little ambivalent, but I try to
think like him. And, in fact, with all billion hours of testing everything
on this planet, should we not have background enough for avoiding all
disasters..like corroded ceramic caps, for instance. Why do we repeat all
failures that have been known for decades?
Inge
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Mahanna" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: [TN] humidity test failure
Hi Wayne,
Agreed. The DUT probably slipped close to, or below dew. Close can be just
as bad. And, surely there is trapped ionics. But, I suspect a correlation
ranking might show those non-wetted solderable surfaces as your real
culprit.
Ability to control the chamber and DUT is highly dependent on absolute
humidity. 85/85 is very tough. Anything higher is crazy. The common
25-65C, 90% is quite difficult without good multi loop control. If you're
cycling a heavy assembly you will probably want to use the surface temp as
an input to your controller.
IPC-9201A is a good source of info. NPL has several papers.
Fully processed comb patterns can 'survive' 85/85 or 25-65/90 SIR/ECM tests
for 1000 hours without cc, but it's not easy.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thayer, Wayne
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [TN] humidity test failure
Hi Technet Gurus!
I have attached a picture of a part responsible for excess current draw
during an extended humidity/temperature cycling test. (I copied Steve so he
can hopefully post!)
The board was carefully solvent cleaned, but no SIR test validating the
process strips all ionic contamination. The board is in an enclosure where
plenty of ionic contaminants are available.
Humidity was supposed to not exceed 90% and was to be non-condensing during
cycling. There were a handful of components which displayed similar
deposits on the same circuit board. These were the only parts biased during
the humidity test. I believe the evidence suggests at least some
condensation occurred. To me the deposits look like salts. But what do
"the experts" think?
Is there any rule of thumb as to humidity levels where we are nuts to try to
survive without conformal coating? Part of the adjacent circuitry contains
RF devices and those guys get panic-stricken when told we probably need to
conformal coat!
Wayne Thayer
This e-mail and any files transmitted with it may be proprietary and are
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the
sender.
Please note that any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely
those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of ITT
Corporation. The recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for
the presence of viruses. ITT accepts no liability for any damage caused by
any virus transmitted by this e-mail.
---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16
for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16
for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to
[log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16
for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or
847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet
To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL)
To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest
Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
-----------------------------------------------------
|